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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

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English

live

/ˈlɪv/
To be alive; to have life.

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English lefe, lifen, libbe, libben, live, luvien, lyven, from Old English libban, lifian (“to live; be alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick”).

    Cognates

    Cognate with Yola live (“to live”), North Frisian laawe, lawe, lewe, lewi, lewwe, lääwe (“to live”), Saterland Frisian lieuwje, líeuwje (“to live”), West Frisian libje (“to live”), Alemannic German läbe (“to live”), Cimbrian and Mòcheno lem (“to live”), Dutch leeven, leven (“to live”), German leben (“to live”), German Low German lęven (“to live”), Limburgish leve, léëve (“to live”), Luxembourgish liewen (“to live”), Vilamovian łaowa (“to live”), Yiddish לעבן (lebn, “to live”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål leve (“to live”), Faroese liva (“to live”), Icelandic lifa (“to live”), Norwegian Nynorsk leva, leve, liva (“to live”), Swedish leva (“to live”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban, “to live”); also Latin lippus (“half-sighted, myopic”), Greek λίπος (lípos, “fat, tallow”), Lithuanian lipti (“to stick”), Bulgarian лепя́ (lepjá, “to glue, paste, stick; to plaster, smear”), Czech lepit (“to glue, stick”), Macedonian лепи (lepi, “to glue, stick”), Polish lepić (“to mold; to glue, paste; to stick”), Russian лепи́ть (lepítʹ, “to fashion, sculpt, shape”), Serbo-Croatian лепити, лије́пити, lépiti, lijépiti (“to glue, paste; to stick”), Slovak lepiť (“to stick”), Slovene lepiti (“to stick”), Ukrainian ліпити (lipyty, “to mould, shape”), Sanskrit लिप् (lip, “to anoint, smear; to defile, soil, taint”), रिप् (rip, “deceit, fraud; injury; enemy, traitor”).

    Etymology 2

    An apheretic form of alive.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • derivedEnglishalive “Having life; living; not dead.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishalyve
        • inheritedOld Englishon līfe
    • rootProto-Indo-European*leyp- “leave, remain”

    Related: Yola live, North Frisian laawe, Saterland Frisian lieuwje, West Frisian libje, Alemannic German läbe, cim,mhn lem, Dutch leeven, German leben, German Low German lęven, Limburgish leve, Luxembourgish liewen, Vilamovian łaowa, Yiddish לעבן, da,nb leve, Faroese liva, Icelandic lifa, Norwegian Nynorsk leva, Swedish leva, Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽, Latin lippus, Greek λίπος, Lithuanian lipti, Bulgarian лепя́, Czech lepit

    Words built on it: living

    Meanings

    verb
    1. To be alive; to have life.
    2. To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside.
    3. (of an object) to have its proper place; to normally be stored.
    4. To survive; to persevere; to continue.
    5. To endure in memory; to escape oblivion.
    6. To cope.
    adj
    1. Having life; that is alive.
    2. Being in existence; actual.
    3. Having active properties; being energized.
    4. Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc.
    5. Of an object or value: that may potentially be used in the future execution of a program.
    6. Taken from a living animal.
    adv
    1. Of an event, as it happens; in real time; direct.
    2. Of making a performance or speech, in person.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: live